Above the Influence Plays Puppeteer to Force Bad Behaviours on Teenagers

Creative agency Hill Holliday and WAX editor Christopher Huth team up with Sonic Union mix engineer David Papa to literally force the hands of teens into making questionable decisions in the impactful new 30 second spot “Who Controls You” for Above the Influence, a program of the non-profit Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. 

The spot, directed by Vine famer Maris Jones, features teenagers in a variety of potentially precarious situations, with a hand reaching in from off-screen to compel them to go against their own better judgment and influence their decisions. A girl has her sandwich pushed away from her as she reads a fashion magazine emblazoned with underweight bikini-clad models, another girl plucks a bottle of prescription medication from the bathroom cabinet while a friend looks on eagerly, two smitten teenage boys are pushed to break affection and are scurried to different sides of the couch, and a girl is driven to become the ringleader of her group of cackling friends to bully a nearby loner. In the final vignette, a boy continues to reject a red cup continuously pushed his way, deliberately placing it out of his eyesight, followed by the voiceover, “If you’re not in control, then who is?”